Saint Eustathius of Antioch, also called Eustathius The Great (born , Side, Pamphylia—died c. 337, possibly in Thrace; feast day: Western Church, July 16; Eastern Church, February 21) bishop of Antioch who opposed the followers of the condemned doctrine of Arius at the Council of Nicaea.

Eustathius was bishop of Beroea (c. 320) and became bishop of Antioch shortly before the Council of Nicaea (325). The intrigues of the pro-Arian Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea led to Eustathius’ deposition by a synod at Antioch (327/330) and banishment to Thrace by the Roman emperor Constantine the Great. The resistance of his followers in Antioch created a Eustathian faction (surviving until c. 485) that developed into the Meletian Schism, a split in the Eastern Church over the doctrine of the Trinity.

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...with banners and chants in support of one side or the other. The Arians, moreover, engaged the public in a relentless fight against the main supporters of the Nicaean decision. One supporter, Eustathius of Antioch, was publicly accused of adultery by a woman carrying an infant she claimed was his. Eustathius was condemned as an adulterer, as well as a heretic and a tyrant, in 330.

in patristic literature

...Nicomedia, and other Arians claimed to be his disciples (“fellow Lucianists”), and Bishop Alexander of Alexandria, who denounced them, lists Lucian among those who influenced them. But Eustathius of Antioch, the champion of Nicene orthodoxy, is probably more representative of the school, with his antipathy to what he regarded as Origen’s excessive allegorism and his recognition, as...

...Origen’s views on the subordination of the Son to what became dangerous lengths. Apart from a few precious letters and fragments, their writings have perished. On the extreme right Athanasius, Eustathius of Antioch, and Marcellus of Ancyra (strongly anti-Origenist) tenaciously upheld the Nicene decision that the Son was of the same substance with the Father. Again, the writings of the two...